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Christine Short

About the Author

Christine Short is a senior vice president at Estimize. An expert in corporate earnings, she produces content highlighting Estimize data. Prior to Estimize, Christine held positions at Thomson Reuters and S&P Capital IQ. @Estimize

Tariffs on imported steel and aluminum were initially ordered by President Trump in March, but subsequently pushed off until June 1. While nothing has been imposed yet, tariffs were top-of-mind for U.S. corporations during first-quarter earnings calls.

One of the hottest subsets of the fintech landscape these days, and for good reason, is alternative data providers. Quantitative investment funds, which continue to outperform their discretionary peers, are in an all-out frenzy to feed their algorithms with as much valuable data as possible to find market signals

After a rough go in 2014 and 2015, energy prices slowly began their upward ascent in 2016 after bottoming out under $30 per barrel early that year. Since then, Brent crude oil touched $70 before settling comfortably above the $60 mark this year.

Now that the hotly debated tax reform bill is a reality, potential winners of a corporate tax move to 21% from 35% are starting to emerge, but exactly how long those benefits will last is being questioned.

Whether or not the corporate tax rate drops to 20% won’t matter much to U.S. companies, which have put up a stellar performance this year and are expected to continue their run into 2018. The S&P 500 saw earnings grow nearly 10% in 2017 (through Dec. 4), an annual rate not seen since 2011.

Technology is becoming a key component of who survives in the current landscape, with mobile applications and touch screen kiosks helping to reduce staff, and creating a more efficient ordering and pickup process. Starbucks (SBUX) is without doubt the pioneer in this space, with mobile payments making up 29% of all transactions at this point.

After the election of President Trump in November 2016, earnings estimates for U.S. corporations began to steadily creep up for 2017 and 2018 in anticipation of a corporate tax cut that would bring rates to as low as 15% from the current 35%. The S&P 500 is now expected to show yearly earnings growth of 10% and revenue growth of 6% — the highest numbers seen since 2011.

A perfect storm of macroeconomic events during the last three years resulted in increased volatility in the energy sector. What began as a seemingly insignificant downturn in the summer of 2014 turned into the cratering of the energy markets by the summer of 2015, particularly crude oil.